Franky D. Gonzalez is a playwright and TV writer of Colombian descent splitting time between Dallas and Los Angeles. He holds a BA in Theatre from the University of North Texas and has had his work featured throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex where he served proudly as the Dramatists Guild Regional Representative in 2018. Nationally, his work has appeared with The Lark, the Sundance Institute, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Ground Floor, the NNPN National Showcase of New Plays, the Latinx Playwrights Circle, the Texas State University's Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration, The Sol Project (SolFest 2022), Urbanite Theatre, Visión Latino Theatre Company, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Goodman Theatre (Live @ Five Series), Launch Pad at UC Santa Barbara, The New Harmony Project, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Repertorio Español, LAByrinth Theater Company, Ars Nova (ANT Fest 2021), Dallas Theater Center, the William Inge Theatre Festival, Austin Latinx New Play Festival, Stages Repertory Theatre's Sin Muros Latinx Theatre Festival, the Latino Theatre Company’s RE:Encuentro 2021: National Virtual Latina/o/x Theatre Festival, the Latinx Theatre Commons 2022 Comedy Carnaval, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, the HBMG Foundation National Winter Playwrights Retreat, Tofte Lake Center, Ignition Arts, Play4Keeps Podcast, the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, Clamour Theatre Company, Ammunition Theater Company, Greenway Court Theatre, the Cloud Factory, The Mid-America Theatre Conference, The Midwest Dramatists Conference, and the One-Minute Play Festival. Franky was a recipient of the Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission, an MTC/Sloan Commission, the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Prize, co-recipient of the MetLife Nuestras Voces Latino Playwriting Award, won the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award, the Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting, the Short+Sweet Theatre Festival Manila Best Overall Production Prize, and was a staff writer for the fourth season of 13 Reasons Why. He has also been a finalist for the New Dramatists residency, the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, San Diego REP Latinx New Play Festival, the Civilians R&D Group, The DVRF Playwriting Program, the Ashland New Play Festival, the Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series, the Orchard Project Adaptation Lab, BETC Generations, the American Blues Theater Blue Ink Playwriting Award, the ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition, and a semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Headwaters New Play Festival, the Dubai Short+Sweet Theatre Festival, and runner-up for the Alpine Fellowship. Most recently Franky was named the 4 Seasons Resident Playwright, a Sony Pictures Television Diverse Writers Program Fellow, the Bishop Arts Theatre Center Playwright-in-Residence, and a Core Writer with the Playwrights Center.
Theatre:
Seth Glewen
The Gersh Agency
sglewen@gersh.com
Television:
Vern Co
The Gersh Agency
vco@gersh.com
Film:
Greg Pedicin
The Gersh Agency
gpedicin@gersh.com
Manager:
Carlos Bobadilla
Valor Entertainment
carlos@valorentgroup.com
Plays
That Must Be the Entrance to Heaven explores the lives and struggles of four Latino boxers fighting to fulfill their dreams in the United States. Wagering their lives for their dreams, these boxers fight with everything their bodies and spirits will allow against destiny, society, and the all-consuming power of a black hole in an effort to win the world title and overcome the roles life had assigned them.
Successes
Core Writer Franky D. Gonzalez has been named an awardee of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Initiative, which commissions plays with an emphasis on science and technology from the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Read full release here.
Franky D. Gonzalez has been named as the 2021 recipient of The Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting with his play Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes. Named in honor of Dr. Royer for her dedication to the development of new plays throughout her distinguished career as a producer, director and dramaturg with new play development programs, as well as establishing the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival’s playwriting program, and being a founding member of ATHE. The Royer Award honors a new play marked by sophisticated and nuanced dramatic storytelling, compelling content, and the potential to make a major artistic impact on contemporary theatre. Read more here.
Franky D. Gonzalez, a Dallas-based playwright and TV writer of Colombian descent, has joined Bishop Arts Theatre Center's full-time staff as Playwright-In-Residence. Bishop Arts Theatre Center was among the first arts and cultural institutions in the country to receive a Shuttered Venues Operating Grant (SVOG) administered by Small Business Association's Office of Disaster Assistance.
The SVOG program was established by the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act with over $16B in funding and amended by the American Rescue Plan Act in December 2020. The award allowed Bishop Arts Theatre Center to pay off their construction loan debt from the 2006 renovations of their century-old building.